Cyclobutadiene states

Stabilizing resonances also occur in other systems. Some well-known ones are the allyl radical and square cyclobutadiene. It has been shown that in these cases, the ground-state wave function is constructed from the out-of-phase combination of the two components [24,30]. In Section HI, it is shown that this is also a necessary result of Pauli s principle and the permutational symmetry of the polyelectronic wave function When the number of electron pairs exchanged in a two-state system is even, the ground state is the out-of-phase combination [28]. Three electrons may be considered as two electron pairs, one of which is half-populated. When both electron pahs are fully populated, an antiaromatic system arises ("Section HI). 

A more general classification considers the phase of the total electronic wave function [13]. We have treated the case of cyclic polyenes in detail [28,48,49] and showed that for Hiickel systems the ground state may be considered as the combination of two Kekule structures. If the number of electron pairs in the system is odd, the ground state is the in-phase combination, and the system is aromatic. If the number of electron pairs is even (as in cyclobutadiene, pentalene, etc.), the ground state is the out-of-phase combination, and the system is antiaromatic. These ideas are in line with previous work on specific systems [40,50]. 

For some systems a single determinant (SCFcalculation) is insufficient to describe the electronic wave function. For example, square cyclobutadiene and twisted ethylene require at least two configurations to describe their ground states. To allow several configurations to be used, a multi-electron configuration interaction technique has been implemented in HyperChem. 

The total 7t-eIectron energy of benzene is 6a -I- 8)3, corresponding to a DE of 2)3. Cyclobutadiene is predicted to have a triplet ground state (for a square geometry) and zero... 

V. Bona i -Koutecky, K. Schoffel, and J. Michl, Electronic states of cyclobutadiene heteroanalogues. Critical biradicaloids, J. Am. Chem. Soc. Ill, 6140 (1989). 

Tetra(tert-butyl)tetrahedrane converts into tetra(tert-butyl)cyclobutadiene only when heated up to 140°C in vacuum. A barrier of 170 kJ mol separates these two isomers (Heilbronner et al. 1980). In the cation-radical state, the tetrahedrane structure converts into the cyclobutadiene structure without heating (Bock et al. 1980, Fox et al. 1982). From Scheme 6.34 it can be seen that by the action of aluminum chloride on methylene chloride, tetrahedrane forms the cation-radical of its isomer—the cyclobutadiene cation-radical and not the cation-radical of the same skeleton. The latter is more stable than the former because of more effective delocalization of the unpaired electron and positive... 

Co-free PAE). In PAE-CoCpl, the fluorescence quantum yield is only 18% of that observed for Co-free PAE, even though the quencher substitutes less than 0.1% of the aryleneethynylene units. The fluorescence in solution disappeared in PAE-CoCp4, where every fifth unit is a cyclobutadiene complex. The mechanism by which this quenching occurs is via the cobalt-centered MLCT states [82,83], conferred onto the polymer by the presence of cyclobutadiene complexes. Even in the solid state the polymers PAE-CoCpl-2 are nonemissive. It was therefore shown that incorporation of CpCo-stabilized cyclobutadiene complexes into PPEs even in small amounts leads to an efficient quenching of fluorescence in solution and in the solid state. Quenching occurs by inter- and intramolecular energy transfer [84]. 

Later in 1978, Masamune reported the first matrix Fourier transform IR spectrum of cyclobutadiene that now allowed a direct comparison of the observed spectrum of 1 with the calculated spectra. In Figure 6, Masamune s experimental spectrum is compared with the computed IR spectra (STO-4G and 4-3IG basis sets). It is seen that both calculated spectra, which were performed with relatively small basis sets, are in good qualitative agreement with the observed spectrum of 1. One could therefore conclude that the ground state structure of cyclobutadiene is indeed rectangular. 

Although aUcenes react rapidly with singlet oxygen, reaction with triplet oxygen is normally slow. Exceptions are very electron-rich aUcenes such as tetraaminoethylenes , and normal aUcenes with low-lying triplet states such as cyclobutadienes andketenes . 

There is another important effect which influences the ordering of the electronic states. Square cyclobutadiene is an organic molecule... 

The antiferromagnetic state described by the occupation of the lower Hubbard band is stabilized by inclusion of such electron correlation, but the ferromagnetic analog is not. This is a result exactly analogous to the stabilization of the lowest singlet state in cyclobutadiene below the triplet. For the simple density of states used by Hubbard in his treatment he showed in fact that the condition for ferromagnetism was... 

Problem 10.30 Design a table showing the structure, number of tt electrons, energy levels of tt MO s and electron distribution, and state of aromaticity of (a) cyclopropienyl cation, b) cyclopropenyl anion, (c) cyclobutadiene, (d) cyclobutadienyl dication, (c) cyclopentadienyl anion, (/) cyclopentadienyl cation, (g) benzene, (h) cycloheptatrienyl anion, (/) cyclooctatetraene, (/ ) cyclooctatetraenyl dianion. ... 

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